CHARLESTON – A House of Delegates resolution that would create an amendment to the state Constitution ensuring only United States citizens can vote in West Virginia elections is now with the state Senate.
House Joint Resolution 21 passed on a 96-0 vote February 6. It was introduced February 7 in the state Senate and sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee before it would go to the Senate Finance Committee.
Delegate Scot Heckert (R-Wood) is the lead sponsor of the resolution. Other sponsors are Mark Zatezalo (R-Hancock), Dave Foggin (R-Wood), Doug Smith (R-Mercer), Bob Fehrenbacher (R-Wood), Pat McGeehan (R-Hancock), George Street (R-Preston), Darren Thorne (R-Hampshire), Jordan Maynor (R-Raleigh), Todd Longanacre (R-Greenbrier) and Chris Phillips (R-Barbour).
If passed, the proposal would add the words “nor shall any person who is not a citizen of the United States be entitled to vote at any election held within this state” to an article in the state Constitution related to voting requirements.
Two-thirds of the members of each house must agree before the resolution goes forward. Then, the voters would vote on the amendment in this fall’s general election.
Delegate Mike Pushkin (D-Kanawha) said the resolution is moot because it's already law in West Virginia.
"West Virginia law already prohibits non-U.S. citizens from voting in West Virginia elections," said Pushkin, who also is chairman of the state Democratic Party. "Everybody supported this resolution because it's already the law.
"It is all a big waste of time and simple election year politics. It did nothing but take time away from focusing on the state's foster care crisis, our corrections crisis and staffing crises all across state government. This is yet another time wasting, do nothing, resolution offered by the majority.
:If they want to go to the time, trouble and expense of putting something on the ballot, they should put reproductive freedom on the ballot and let West Virginians vote on that."
A similar measure also was introduced in the state Senate last month, and the topic has caught wind across the country among conservatives.
Last month, the Kentucky House of Representatives passed a proposed constitutional amendment that would require U.S. citizenship to vote in elections in the commonwealth. And a Virginia General Assembly delegate also has introduced legislation that would require Virginia residents to prove U.S. citizenship when registering to vote by providing a birth certificate, passport or naturalization documents.
West Virginia State Senate President Craig Blair (R-Berkeley) sponsored and introduced SJR7. It still is in the hands of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“Most people assume that in order to vote in the United States, a person must be a citizen of the United States,” Blair told The West Virginia Record. “However, that isn’t always the case.
“Liberal cities like San Francisco and New York are allowing non-citizens to vote.”
Blair said federal law requires citizenship to vote in a federal election, but the law does not apply to state and local elections.
“Unless our West Virginia constitution specifically states that only citizens can vote, the possibility of non-citizens legally voting exists,” he told The Record. “So, we have proposed a Constitutional Amendment that will ensure that only citizens can vote in elections in West Virginia.
“Only citizens of the United States and West Virginia should be voting in West Virginia elections.”
State Sen. Mike Stuart (R-Kanawha) is a co-sponsor of the Senate resolution.
“Voting should be exclusively the fundamental right of actual citizens of the United States,” Stuart, a former U.S. Attorney who is running for state Attorney General, told The Record. “The failure of the Biden Administration to secure the southern border has caused an illegal invasion of the nation.
“While I support legal immigration, no one likes line skippers at Disney World or the border. Legal citizens who are here pursuant to our laws should have the right to vote – no one else.
“As an American citizen, I don’t vote in other countries elections, and they shouldn’t vote in ours.”